Behind the urban curtains

Page Tools

"Be nice to the security guard" has replaced "beware of the dog" on
the front gate, writes Matt O'Sullivan.

To insiders the suburb is a sanctuary from perceptions of
rampant crime. But to outsiders the guardhouse, gates and security
patrols invoke feelings of exclusion and evidence of growing
disparities between rich and poor.

Welcome to Macquarie Links. Sandwiched between the Hume Highway
and a railway line in Campbelltown, the residents decided more than
18 months ago to close the gates at the sole entrance to one of
Sydney's newest suburbs. Security guards record the numberplates of
vehicles entering the estate and residents carry identity cards in
an effort to keep criminals at bay.

The justification of residents for the high security is a need
for shelter from dangers lurking beyond their gates. To back their
claims, they need only look across the rolling fairways of the golf
course estate to neighbouring Macquarie Fields, where police
battled residents in riots this week.

But paradise is an illusion in Fortress Australia. Almost 20
years after Australia's first gated community opened at Sanctuary
Cove on the Gold Coast, research here and abroad is challenging the
rationale for homeowners to hide behind high walls. In the
Macquarie Links case, even its developer wishes residents had left
the gates open.

Research shows the walls do not prevent serious crime. "What it
does say is that you can put yourself in a secure estate but at the
end of the day most serious crime is not between strangers," says
Dr Murray Lee, a criminologist at the University of Western
Sydney.

That's not stopping homeowners in estates across the country
following the lead of Americans and erecting buffers between
themselves and outsiders. Today's gated communities are a test case
for suburbs more Australians could occupy in 30 years.

Already, there are an estimated 100,000 people in Australia
living in gated communities ranging from resort-style golf course
estates to townhouse complexes with streets accessible only to
people carrying swipe cards and where surveillance cameras scan for
criminals.

In the United States up to 12 per cent of the population lives
in gated communities, despite researchers painting a bleak picture
of the consequences for those inside. A study in California in 2000
predicted that residents would suffer an "erosion of the social
fabric of their community" because of a lower reported sense of
community behind walls.

In Britain, a study in 2003 for the Centre for Neighbourhood
Research concluded that crime in gated communities is at similar
levels to that in suburbs outside.

A 2002 British study supported by the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors, Building balanced communities,
concluded that gated communities' walls have little impact on
keeping criminals out. "What changes is perception: people feel
safer behind gates, although at the same time their fear of the
outside world increases," said the study's author, Anna Minton.
"The key is that those living behind gates become detached from
mainstream society, not only physically but politically."

Academics here also criticise gated communities. "This is a
phenomenon largely driven by anxiety and a fear of crime rather
than the experience of crime," says Brendan Gleeson, professor of
urban management and policy at Griffith University in
Queensland.

To make matters worse, Gleeson says, overseas experience shows
police tend to be more passive in watching over communities which
have taken it upon themselves to pay for security.

Residents of gated communities do not agree with such findings,
praising their self-created safe havens.

Security was one of the main reasons Brian, 36, who preferred
his surname not be published, moved in the middle of last year with
his wife and eight-month-old child from Hornsby to Pacific Lakes
Estate on the Central Coast.

"It's safe because it's a community," he says. "We know all the
people, they all look out for each other. It is very secure for
kids. It is not so much a worry-about-crime thing, just a good
feeling of community.

"The gates are only closed at certain times, so friends can drop
in. There is always a very friendly, neighbourly sort of
atmosphere."

Nereda Wade, 64, who moved from Sydney to Pacific Lakes Estate
in 2003, says: "You have got that sense of security, in that you
haven't got hoons driving up and down the street all night.

"When I was in Northmead, you used to hear 'boom, boom, boom'
every night when they were driving around. Not very nice. Here you
just hear the birds."

Security is also one of the main reasons Ian Davis bought at
Macquarie Links. "You look at Sydney today and it is a dog fight,"
says Davis, a former Australian Test cricketer. "We are very happy
there [at Macquarie Links]."

Davis believes high-security developments such as Macquarie
Links are "the way of the future". He moved there in late 2003
after seeing similar communities in the US.

Police say the high security at Macquarie Links dramatically
reduces the number of break-ins and vehicle thefts. But crimes such
as domestic violence are on a par with non-gated communities of a
similar socio-economic make-up.

The estate's developer, Monarch Investments Group, did not plan
for Macquarie Links to close itself off from outsiders when
construction began in 1997. Residents took it upon themselves more
than 18 months ago to boost security. Legally they can prevent
outsiders from entering because the estate is on community title,
making the streets private property.

Monarch's chief, Peter Icklow, says the gates were closed
because of residents' perception of crime. "I wanted people to
drive through and have a look. It's a hassle if you want to visit
someone."

The fears of residents at Macquarie Links - and other gated
communities such as Pacific Lakes Estate and The Manor in
Cherrybrook - defy statistics showing crime rates falling. The
latest figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
reveal that crime in the state dropped in 12 of the 16 major
categories in the two years to September. The other four categories
- murder, sexual assault, robbery with a firearm and malicious
property damage - did not record significant change.

Other research raises questions about residents' health. In
Queensland, empirical research by Matt Burke, a research fellow at
Griffith University, suggests people living in gated communities
engage in less physical activity than those outside.

Burke says children's activity is curbed significantly by
owners' committees in Brisbane, prohibiting them from playing on
streets. Children are also prevented from visiting nearby
playgrounds and denied interaction with other children.

"The really tragic sight I saw during the research was a girl on
a Razor scooter looking really forlorn. She was looking out through
the wire mesh where other children were playing," he says. "It
looked a pretty lonely play experience for that child compared to
the eight or 10 children who were making use of that
playground."

But Macquarie Links residents say the opposite is true. Kent and
Karen Jenkins, who have two daughters aged 4 and 6, moved there two
years ago from Bow Bowing, a suburb of Campbelltown. Kent, 40, says
Macquarie Links is ideal for his two girls, who can play without
their parents worrying about the dangers from heavy traffic. "It's
quiet and safe and secure. From a child's perspective, they have
made good friends in the estate and outside through school," he
says.

Opposition to gated communities is easy to find, especially from
councils, academics and the wider community.

But amid the bad press, one aspect impossible to ignore is
residents' upbeat assessment of their communities. "People
definitely felt safer on their streets at night. And if people feel
safer they accrue benefits," Griffith University's Burke says.

In the developing world, in cities like Jakarta, they "may be
the only way forward". They bring wealthy people into parts of
cities where they would otherwise not live. "It's a form of social
bridging - if not a form of social bonding," Burke says.

Here it's harder to determine whether gated estates are doing
the same because the disparities in wealth are not as great.

The Mayor of Campbelltown, Brenton Banfield, believes Macquarie
Links encourages people who would have lived elsewhere in Sydney to
live in his city, where Arabic and Spanish are the most common
languages after English.

But he admits he doesn't like the closed-door policy. "If I
don't appear to be acceptable I would be excluded entry and that's
what I don't like about it," he says. "Just because you have a
certain appearance doesn't mean you should be excluded from what
would normally be a public place."

What is clear is that gated communities are here to stay despite
doubts over their effectiveness in reducing crime. "It's going to
take a body corporate to take [the walls] down and I don't think
there will be the momentum to bring them down," Burke says. "The
mistakes we make now will play out for 50 to 100 years. Not every
gated community is a mistake but we are going to be stuck with them
for some time."

Gated but ot cut off from reality

If you could get inside a gated community, you might be
surprised who you'd meet.

"No longer are gated communities the preserve of empty nesters
or wealthy families", says Matt Burke, a research fellow at
Griffith University in Queensland. "They are now becoming the
preserve of a whole range of ... groups."

Women heading single-parent families are the only group
over-represented in gated communities, according to research
conducted in Brisbane by Burke. They "hadn't lived without a man
for a number of years and felt safer".

The changing demographics have much to do with developers
choosing to build smaller, more secure townhouse communities for
renters and investors in medium-density areas rather than
resort-style estates such as Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast.

At Macquarie Links in Campbelltown about a quarter of the
residents have moved there from homes within 10 kilometres of the
estate, says Macquarie Links Realty's managing director, Bert
Godwin.

Retired couple Greg and Diana Percival moved to Macquarie Links
because they wanted to downsize from a five-bedroom house in nearby
Ingleburn. "We love it," says Greg.

"The neighbours are friendly and it is made up of people who
have an interest for the community in which they live. It's the old
story of like attracts like."

House prices tell the story: a 400-square-metre house on
800-square-metres that sold for $390,000 in 1999 is likely to sell
now for $800,000. An 800-square-metre block has risen from $125,000
in 1998 to about $500,000.

Residex's property analyst, John Edwards, says more gated
communities are likely to be built as developers seek to
differentiate themselves. "But I'm not sure in Australia that the
population is looking for it."